Nicolas Müller Interview

Nicolas Müller is an amazing snowboarder—someone we can all admire for his seemingly natural ability to crush-it on all terrain. But what is possibly even more admirable, is his choice to speak out about things that matter. Things like global warming, sustainability, and environmental awareness. When so many pros never bother use their position as opinion leaders to any responsible end, its nice to hear from someone who actually has some thoughts and opinions and ideas. Read up.

How did you become aware and concerned about your “impact “ on the planet?

It started with becoming a Vegetarian and choosing to eat organically grown produce only. In the beginning I did it mainly for my own health and soon I realized that we influence the whole planet with our actions.

What do you think is the most significant action you take to reduce that impact?
Not eating meat. The amount of water, nutrition, farmland and fossil fuels consumed to make one piece of meat gets me going for weeks. With today’s population on this planet, it is straight up ridiculous to think you need meat with every meal. If we keep consuming at this pace we will need several planet earths to provide the resources.

How do you reconcile the use of helicopters and snowmobiles in your work?
There’s no doubt that I use a lot of fossil oil for my travels around the world as a professional snowboarder. Again, meat production is before global traffic when it comes to climate impact. In South America alone, in the past 25years, 20 Million hectares of forest have been burnt and cut down to make space for cattle. Those trees would put a lot of C02 in the ground. I am also at the forefront of the SuddenRushAtlanticRainforest Institution, where I offset my C02 footprint by purchasing forest that becomes national forest after I bought it. Forever and certified by the Governement of Brasil.

Do you see awareness growing?
No doubt, there’s a great energy on this planet today. People start to think, they are bored of their consumer lives and they are beginning to question things instead of believing everything. There’s a lot of manipulation out there, but everybody can still choose for themselves who they want to support with their dollars, which equals their energy.

Talk about your new board?
The EcoNico is the most environmentally friendly board in the line. We could say it’s like a prototype with the most up-to-date green technology in making boards at Burton. It has a FSC farmed woodcore, recycled metal and plastik, no laquer topsheet, and water-based inks printed on recycled paper, to name a few things here. Every year there will be a progress within my board that will trickle into the whole board line the following season.

What is the next step you can take to further your cause of environmental awareness?
I see it like this, you can’t totally change overnight and nobody is perfect either … But the thing I am trying to do is to consider the sustainability in every action. And that can go as far as thoughts. I don’t want anything that I do to have a negative impact on myself or on the big wide world.

How do you keep yourself informed about these issues?
By sharing and meeting with people that believe in similar ways. From books and websites, documentary films. A lot of it also just came together in my head from observing nature, our civilization and society and thinking about it a lot. I am an introvert … I think a lot … sometimes too much.